USA > Iowa > Appanoose County > Past and present of Appanoose County, Iowa : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. I > Part 30
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Hlague Hoffman was born in Green county, Pennsylvania, in 1831. Hc came to lowa in 1857 and lived in Unionville several years. Here he studied medicine under Dr. S. H. Sawyers, an eminent physician and surgeon of his day. Dr. lloffman graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons,
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Cincinnati, Ohio, and practiced his profession at Unionville until 1805, when he moved to Moravia.
Franklin Eells located in Centerville in 1855 and began the practice of medicine with Dr. McCoy. He graduated from Rush Medical College in 1804. The doctor went into the manufacture of medicine later on and from the fact that he advertised, it is probable he was not in the best of standing with the "regulars," who make a fetich of the so-called "professional ethics.'
Moses Y. Sellers began the practice of medicine in Moulton over four decades ago. He spent part of the year 1864 in the medical college at Keokuk and then opened an office in Iconium, where he remained four years. He graduated from the Keokuk Medical College in 1880.
As a physician. John M. Sturdivant was eminently successful. He was born on a farm in Van Buren county, lowa, in 1838, and died November 7, 1890. Dr. Sturdivant read medicine under Dr. O. A. George, at Bonaparte, lowa, and graduated from an eye, ear and throat infirmary of St. Louis: and Keokuk Medical College in 1861. He began practice in Cincinnati, Iowa, and remained there until 1882. when he came to Centerville.
Dr. William Sayres was one of the early regular practitioners of Appa- noose county and established a splendid reputation as a physician and surgeon. He was a man of high character and his death, which occurred March 14. 1891. was deeply regretted. He was born on a farm in Harrison county, Ohio. in 1818, and when a lad learned the tailor's trade. Being ambitious, he read medicine. began the practice and, in 1851. located in Drakesville, where he remained until 1855. when he removed to Cincinnati. Dr. Sayres held the posi- tion of postmaster at Cincinnati under Abraham Lincoln and retained the office until the first election of Grover Cleveland.
Joseph P. Smith, a native of the Keystone state, graduated from the Eclec- tic Medical College. Cincinnati, Ohio. in 1852. He located in Centerville in 1859 and in Orleans in 1860, where he practiced his profession nine years. In 1809 Dr. Smith removed to Moulton, and there built up a good practice during his residence in the village.
E. M. Reynolds located in Appanoose county with his parents in 1849. He began the practice of medicine in Centerville in 1873 and continued until his death. Dr. E. F. Bamford bought his practice a short time before his death.
Dr. M. L. Culp practiced for some time at Moulton, locating there in 1873. Dr. Price N. Landis served as an army surgeon during the Civil war and located in Exline in 1865. He remained in the practice a number of years.
Dr. Beebe lived a busy and practical life and for many years practiced medi- cine in Franklin township.
Dr. G. S. Stansberry took excellent care of the sick in and about Dean and was early in the field as a physician, the '50s having just commenced when he came to Appanoose county.
In her pioneer days. Moravia was fortunate in having two good physician- in the persons of Drs. Harvey and Bradley. Both of these worthy men died at Moravia many years ago.
At Moulton the first physician to practice there was Dr. M. B. V. Howell. He was followed by Dr. James P. Smith and later. Dr. W. F. S. Murch. Dr. I. D. Hawkins settled there in 1884, but none of these physicians are in the
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village at this time. W. F. S. Murdy came to Appanoose county with his par- ents in 1861, when a lad of seventeen years. He read medicine in the office of Dr. M. V. Howell, of Moulton, and. after graduating from the Missouri Medi- cal College at St. Louis in 1848, he opened an office in Moulton.
Other physicians who practiced in Centerville, early in its history, and who are long since gone to their last resting place, were Drs. N. L. Price, C. 11. Bishop. H. D. Shontz. J. C. Whitney and G. A. Henry. Dr. William M. Scott is still living. although in retirement. For an extended sketch of this dean of the profession. see Volume 11.
APPANOOSE COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY
Prior to the year 1909 the physicians of AAppanoose county joined with members of their profession of Wayne county and organized the Appanoose and Wayne County Medical Society. The medical men of Appanoose county separated from Wayne in a formal manner, at a meeting held in the assembly room of Drake Public Library building, January 26. 1909. This meeting was called to order by Dr. E. E. Bamford. Dr. C. P. Tillmont was placed in the chair and Dr. Frank Sturdivant was chosen as secretary of the proceedings. . \ constitution and by-laws were adopted and the following officers of the newly- created society elected: President. W. L. Downing : vice president. E. E. Bam- ford; secretary and treasurer. C. P. Bowen; delegate to state convention, C. S. James : board of censors, U. 1 .. Hurt. W. A. Harris. A. B. George. Interesting papers were read and discussed and President Warher of the State Medical Society delivered an address. At this meeting it was determined that all mem- bers of the erstwhile .Appanoose-Wayne County Medical Society should be eligible to the Appanoose County Medical Society. A permanent meeting place was secured in Drake Public Library building.
The present officers and members of the society are :
President. J. L. Sawyers : vice president, T. J. Case ; secretary-treasurer, C. S. James ; censors. J. A. Replogle, U. L. Hurt. C. P. Tillmont ; delegate to state convention, E. E. Bamford. Members: Centerville. E. E. Bamford. C. P. Bowen, T. W. Blachley, A. B. George, C. S. Hickman, E. E. Heaton. W. A. Harris, C. S. James, W. B. Miller. J. MeFarland. J. L. Sawyers. J. W. Shuman, C. E. Sawyers. B. F. Sturdivant. G. F. Severs, W. W. Svp. W. Scott, C. P. Till- mont : Cincinnati, 11. C. Hoch, J. M. Sturdivant, . V. P. Stevenson, W. 11. Stephen- son: Moulton, W. 1 .. Downing, E. T. Printz. M. Y. Sellers. W. F. Ware; Moravia. W. R. Day. G. D. Lynch ; Unionville, T. J. Case : Mystic, W. J. Fenton. N. W. Labaugh ; Exline, 1 .. J. Sturdivant : C'dell. J. A. Replogle: Numa. C. L. Hurt.
MIROY HOSPIT M.
Through the efforts of the medical fraternity of Centerville, funds were raised by subscription and otherwise in the year 1002. amounting to about $10,000, for the purpose of establishing a hospital. The William Peatman resi- dence, on South Main street, was purchased and another, close by, was also secured and moved to the west end of the lot. In this latter building are rooms for the nurses and a chapel. Before work on the hospital had been completed.
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apartments were erected which joined the two structures mentioned and the result is a connected string of buildings, running from Main street back to South Twelfth street, and opposite the handsome new high school building. The institution was opened November 17. 1903, under the management of a corps of local physicians. But the managing board soon tired of the responsibilities involved and the hospital was turned over to the Sisters of Mercy of St. Joseph's parish and is now known as Mercy Hospital.
CENTERVILLE POSTOFFICE
$
PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDING, CINCINNATI
CHAPTER XVIH.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF APPANOOSE COUNTY- THEIR HISTORIES AS PORTRAYED BY MIRS. S. S. WEBSTER. COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS-THE VARIOUS INSTITU- TIONS OF LEARNING IN THE CITIES AND VILLAGES OF THE COUNTY.
The school system of Appanoose county was organized under the same laws and regulations pertaining to other counties of lowa. There are thirteen school townships, twelve independent districts, one city and twenty-three rural inde- pendent districts. At the present time ( 1912) there are one hundred and forty schoolhouses, suitable for use. two hundred and thirty teachers employed, and eight thousand, nine hundred and sixty-three pupils of school age. The following towns have graded schools :
CENTERVILLE .- Four buildings for the grades and a high-school building. The high-school building is modern, convenient and of beautiful architecture. It is an accredited school and the work done by the teachers and pupils is surpassed by no other school in the state. Appanoose county may well be proud of the Centerville high school.
MoriTox .= One school building, with an excellent high school, and for its size the equipment is one of the best in the state. The courses consist of a normal training course and others.
Mysin .- Four school buildings and an excellent high-school course.
CINCINNATI .- On building a grades from the primary to fouryears high-school cour-e. Its building is modern in every manner.
MORAIA .- One school building, all grades, and a four-year high-school course. The building is excellent and modern in design.
JEROME .- Is supplied with one three-room building, in which are employed three teachers who extend their services to the tenth year work.
UNIONVILLE-One school building, three teachers and all employed to teach to eleventh year.
EXLINE. One school building, four teachers and grades to tenth year.
News- One school building, four teachers and all grades to eleventh year work.
BRAZIL .- One school building, two teachers and work extending to ninth year.
KATHRIN. - One school building, not modern, but a very good structure. There are three teachers who extend their work to the ninth year.
L'DELL .-- This modern little village has one very convenient school building. There are two teachers, whose work extends into the tenth grade.
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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TI D N FOUNDATIONS.
CHAPTER XIX
THE PRESS
AN ARCHIMEDIAN LEVER THAT MOVES THE SENTIMENT OF THE WORLD-THE PAPERS OF BYGONE DAYS AND THEIR NEWS SERVICE RELIGIOUS, POLITICAL AND COM- MERCIAL-PAPERS WHICH DID NOT FILL A WIDE-FELT WANT-THE PRESENT PRESS WHICH ABLY SERVES CENTERVILLE AND APPANOOSE COUNTY.
There is not more difference between the tallow dip of half a century ago and a two-thousand candle-power are than there is to be noticed between the Chieftain of 1856 and the Centerville papers of today. In fact the person of this day who turns the old pages of the Chieftain, of which very few remain, seeking something in the form of news of Centerville and the county of that carlier day, finds himself wondering why the subscriber or merchant paid his newspaper bills at all-and what he got for his money? The oldest inhabitant may remember the paucity that featured the news column of papers of those days and he may recall the reason that people advanced for paying the printer but it is certain that no such paper as was then well supported could live long in these times. This deficiency was not unique with the Chieftain however; it was characteristic of American newspaperdom.
There was no thought then of anything but the simplest form of printing press except in the largest and richest offices. The Chieftain was printed on a hand press, operated by man power, or oftener as being cheaper, by boy power. There was painful reality in the phrase "working of the edition" and however limited the circulation, it took time. There was no possibility of enlargement by throwing on an extra two or four pages, as the perfecting presses of this day do on short notice; it was four pages of none. If the four pages would not hold the advertising and the sage observations of the editor, the alternative was to make the columns longer, or add one or two columns to a page. By this process in times of abounding plenty with the advertiser the "sheet" expanded into a "blanket" and was worthy of its name. Those old time papers had an immensity of expanse that would not be tolerated today.
PACITY OF READING M VITER
Today people complain that their papers contain too much advertising for the amount of reading matter, but they do not realize that there has been a steady gain in the proportion of reading matter all these years. Most of the matter in the early days that purported to be used was paid "puff" or editorial
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observation or opinion. The occasional news item that strayed into print was so shorn of details, so compressed and so laden with wise observations. com- ment and advice, that the reader got only the barest glimpse of what had hap- pened and that glimpse was destitute of all color, circumstance or incident; destitute of everything, in fact, but the mere statement that such and such a thing happened.
THERE WERE NO REPORTERS
This lack of narrative and statement in the so-called news of fifty years ago may be accounted for by several reasons. For one thing, it was the fashion to treat news in that manner. The reportorial art and knack had not been developed, though it was coming. For another thing, the paper that was published in lowa in those days could not afford to make extended mention of anything that did not have great political or financial interest, unless it might be the most sensa- tional of events, such as a great storm, or fire, or crime, or accident. AAgain. it was the manner of the times to take opinions at second hand; very much more the manner of that time than it is of this, at any rate. And then there was little display of that energy in the pursuit of news matter that is the characteristic of the newspaper of today. The most sensational incidents were passed with the merest mention.
ANONYMOUS NEWS ITEMS
There was a curious reluctance to mention the names of individuals in those days. Entire issues of the paper about this period do not contain the name of a single person in the way of news. At the same time the editorial columns may have teemed with personalities that verged upon virulence. Strangers were coming to Centerville by the hundreds, yet there were no "personals." such as make an important feature of the papers today. People died and were married. bought and sold property, and gave parties, suffered good and evil fortune, and clid no end of things worthy to be recounted in print, as they do now and always have done : yet the local columns of the local papers took practically no account of them. Politics and "puffs" and stale generalities made up the mass of the matter published.
WOULD CALL A SPADE A SPADE
On the other hand, the editor had a plain and homely way of calling a spade a spade in those days-if, indeed, he did not go further than that and call it several things more-and in controversies he was wont to break out in language that would not be heard in any newspaper office of standing in this time. The editor of those days had not the fear of the libel law before his eyes as now, for one thing, and it was a plainer spoken and altogether cruder and rougher age. for another. lle said things then that he would not dare to say today ; he said things then that he would not be disposed to say now. It was the fashion, the thing that people expected. A newspaper was accounted without snap, or character and vigor if it did not pitch into the other fellow without fine scruple. touching the names, if called. To give an example, not mentioning any paper : "Messrs. Editors: Referring to extremely personal communications in the World Illuminator, signed 'Blank,' it might be expected by strangers to the man
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that I should answer his query. If any person of respectability, whether my political friend or enemy, desires me to answer questions civilly presented. I shall do so with the greatest of pleasure, but so far as 'Blank' is known in this community. it is as a loafer and a liar, and with due respect to myself and per- sonal friends, I cannot descend to discuss a matter with him in the public print but shall hereafter treat his communications as they deserve, with silent con- tempt, considering. as I do, personal vilification at his hands, creditable rather than otherwise."
Between the editor and his brother editor there frequently befell passages at arms that reeked with gore. The polite vocabulary was exhausted in mutual belaborings and the language of Billingsgate was not infrequently drawn upon and yet. when the paper was out the principals in this wordy combat did not seruple to appear in public in most brotherly communion. All this slang-whang- ing and blustering was mere stage thunder, harmless and part of the play. The people wanted a gingery paper-or else the editor sadly misunderstood the tenor of their newspaper appetite-and he gave them what they wanted; but never at the expense of the fraternal friendship.
PAID MATTER
There is another reason that accounts for the lack of the personal element in the news columns of those times, and that is one purely of business. It is always hard to dissociate advertising from news. Use men's names in print, and a certain amount of advertising inevitably follows. The newspaper in those clays was not at all a public affair but a private enterprise. Its first duty was to its owner's interest. He was primarily publishing an advertising sheet and by way of diversion, filling a small portion of it with opinions and news matter. the advertising being all the time the prime interest. So, while the first years of the newspaper in Centerville showed a scant column of so-called local news, the rest of the paper, with the exception of three or four columns of editorial and miscellany, was fairly crowded with advertising. There were no mentions of welding», or funerals, or deaths ; of comings or goings ; of buildings and bargains in real estate-as a rule-unless the parties at interest paid for them. The fol- lowing item published in an issue of the Chieftain gives the clue to the situation as clearly as anything can :
"Notice-Persons getting married and sending in notices are requested to pay for the insertion of the same as for any other advertisement ; otherwise they will not appear. The man who is too poor to pay for having his marriage pub lished, better be thinking of other matters than getting a wife."
There is the matter in a nutshell-nothing was used as news that could be made to pay the paper a profit : and rather than miss an occasional profit of this sort the paper would miss publishing any amount of matter that is now regarded as vital news. The half century or more that has passed since then has abso- lutely revolutionized newspaper making. It has reversed the importance of the editorial and the news page, and it has likewise reversed the relative position of proper news matter and legitimate advertising matter. Then a newspaper was essentially an advertising sheet, but it carried a little reading matter. Now it is a newspaper, and carries with the reading some advertising. Then the depart-
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ment of local news was so rudimentary as sometimes not to be visible, while the editorials gave character and standing to the paper. Now the editorial quality of a paper may help to give it standing, but its repute as a purveyor of fresh, reliable, interesting, important news is the factor that counts with the public and determines its popularity. The newspaper man of this day who turns over the files of the papers of those days is apt to picture the stir he would have been able to make if he could have been there then, with a moderately good plant and a fresh infusion of modern ideas. Hardly any other well established line of activity in this country has undergone as much change in the past fifty years as the making of a daily paper.
RAN ALL TO POLITICS
The whole end of man. in those days, seemed to be political discussion, if the life of the time has been truly reflected in the local journalism of that day. Compared with the same line of matter today, it was decidedly strenuous. The man on the other side, whichever side it might be, was seldom accredited with even a modicum of brains, honor or decency. In these days such controversy is conducted between impersonal newspapers ; then the editor who was really in earnest, routed his opponent out of the defense afforded by the editorial "we." and fought him in the open in his own proper name and person. When politics failed as a source of inspiration the shears were the main reliance, and choice selections, ranging from an elopement or embezzlement in some distant state to the manners of the king of Portugal, were offered the readers of the paper. The Chieftain, in its infancy, kept company with the other papers of the state in these customs. Its old files show numbers that are destitute of anything that can be construed as local news, and again there are others that tell fairly well what happened here when the town was new. But it did as well as its contemporaries. and eventually it distanced them all.
STALE NEWS PREFERRED
Another mannerism of the time in journalism was seeming indifference to the timeliness of the publication of news. There was little of the present day's haste to have a man on the spot when things were happening. The news which did get into the paper was apt to be at least one day or week older than it should have been, and it might be several days older. It is quite usual to find a bare mention of a ball, a concert, a lecture, a meeting, or some such event, in the issue following the date, with the promise that the matter shall be taken up at greater length in a future issue. Many things that a paper of today would report in full at any cost in the first succeeding issue were passed in this manner.
This is easily accounted for. Capital was limited and later, as money troubles multiplied in this community, receipts were seanty where they should have been plentiful. The newspaper of those days was always shorthanded. It needed more help than it was able to hire. The Chieftain suffered this limitation, as did the other papers of Centerville and this territory. What was written must be written by probably one man, or at the most, by two. It was a physical im- possibility for that one man to do all the other more necessary things that must
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be done hrst. and then have much time left for verbatim reports of toast, pro- grams, political harangues, and runaways. Even if he had notes of the matter. he had to wait for time to expand them into copy. There were no stenographers and typewriters in those days.
A CHANGE OF SPEECH
Again, we notice the wide divergence between the language of the press in those days and the speech it uses now. Then it was stilted, formal and stiff. in many cases, and at least it was always tinctured with something of that kind. It had the euphemism of Washington Irving, or Macaulay, or Addison, when the writer was in good humor, and it thundered with the artillery of Burke, and Webster and Patrick Henry, with considerable grape and cannister of the Bil- lingsgate brand when he wanted to pierce the armor of an opponent and rankle there. Today no newspaper that is published uses such speech. We use the verbiage of the present time, which is as far from that as the aphoristic sentences of Alfred Henry Lewis are from the careful phrasings of Charles Lamb. How far this editorial bombardment overshot the heads and speech of the common herd who took the paper, either by subscribing, borrowing or stealing ( paper thieves were rampant then), we have no way of learning : but if the people used the speech of the papers, those were indeed deliberate old days.
SCANTINESS OF TELEGRAPH
Of course the striking feature of this scantiness of news in the pioneer paper- was its staleness. Telegraph service was in its infancy here and main dependence was placed upon Keokuk and Burlington papers for news of the outside world. which came at irregular intervals and was reprinted. There was no cable in those days, and so there was no fresh news of the doings of the world at large.
THE LACK OF HEADLINES
Another feature of the paper of fifty years ago that has a queer look in these days, was it- total absence of display of news. The art of writing headlines was a knack of later growth. In 1855 and on down to 1865, and for years after that, the telegraph news of the paper was "run in," the news from Africa and Hong Kong and Cuba and Nicaragua and New Mexico and London and Chicago and Oregon and Washington, all solid type, with hardly more than a date line between these geographical subdivisions, and no sort of effort to bring out the tenor of the news so that he who ran might read. Two or three columns of this matter, in fine type, none too well printed, with less than an inch of headline to all of it, was quite usual up to the middle 'Tos.
THE UNSLERING MAVERIISER
There was another feature of the papers of those days, and that was the moderation of the business man in asking to have his advertisement surrounded with reading matter, and given other exclusive prominence of display. The
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chief aim was to get money enough out of the business to make it pay. There was no trouble in satisfying the advertiser in the matter of "position" or display. He seemed to ask only to be admitted to the paper-somewhere.
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